How to make homemade yogurt in a crock pot!

Before I share my crock pot yogurt-making experience, I wanted to share some interesting information from Women’s Health.

Cardio burns more calories than strength training: FICTION.

You can reduce cellulite through exercise: FACT.

Exercise improves your ability to learn: FACT.

Morning is the best time of day to exercise: FICTION.

Running a marathon increases one’ss risk of a heart attack: FACT.

Skinny people are always healthier than overweight people: FICTION.

There were a few others, but I wanted to highlight the ones that I enjoyed most. I’m not sure about the cardio vs. strength training as far as calories burned? That doesn’t sound right to me, but any fitness experts care to comment??

The last 2 were the most exciting to me – I’m always more accepting of my weight knowing it doesn’t make me less healthy than my lesser weight counter-part.

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On to the YOGURT!

When I made homemade Greek yogurt last week in my friend’s yogurt maker, some of you commented that you can make it in the crock pot, or you simply wouldn’t buy a “uni-tasker” to make yogurt (loved that term!). And I agree…uni-taskers in the kitchen typically don’t get used much and take up valuable cabinet and pantry storage. Therefore, I bring you CROCK POT YOGURT!

Put 1/2 gallon (8 cups) of milk in a crock pot, on low, for 2 1/2 hours. I used 2% milk.

After 2 1/2 hours, unplug the crock pot and let it sit for 3 hours. DO NOT remove lid.

After 3 hours, remove ~2 cups of the milk and mix in either 2 packets of live and active yogurt starter cultures -OR- 1/2 cup store-bought yogurt with live and active cultures.

Put the mixture back into the crock pot, stir, and re-cover. Wrap a heavy towel all the way around the crock pot and allow it to sit on the counter 8+ hours, or overnight (I left mine for about 10 1/2 hours).

In the morning, you will have VERY thin yogurt. It was more like buttermilk to me.

So, I strained the yogurt through coffee filters for 10-20 hours in the fridge (longer strain = thicker yogurt) as though I were making Greek yogurt…

And I ended up with some tasty, thick yogurt!

Remember to save 1/2 cup of your homemade yogurt to use as a starter in your next batch of yogurt!

1/2 gallon of organic 2% milk made approximately 2 cups of yogurt — about 4 servings, 1/2 cup each. That estimates to $0.50 a serving, which is significantly less than the retail cost ($1.00-$2.50 per serving) of Greek yogurts.

So, do I recommend getting a yogurt maker? If you have the storage space, it is quite a bit easier. More importantly, the yogurt firmed up MUCH better in the yogurt maker. If I hadn’t strained the yogurt from the crock pot, it would’ve been inedible to me, personally. It was literally soupy. But it did make good, thick, Greek yogurt after being strained!

Bottom line: If you want homemade yogurt with the option of Greek yogurt — buy a yogurt maker. Only interested in Greek yogurt? Stick with your crock pot and save the money on the yogurt maker.

I’ve learned some valuable lessons in yogurt-making here lately!

Question: What’s your most commonly used kitchen appliance (other than stove, microwave, range, etc.)? Knowing you can make yogurt in the crock pot, will you be giving it a try?

Last day of work in one of my clinics 🙁 I am training a new RD, so I will be swamped today teaching her the ropes and seeing my 12 scheduled patients (ahhh!)…and I have a hockey game tonight. So I will probably catch up with y’all tomorrow!

Other than my coffee pot, which I can not bear the thought of living without, I LOVE my food processor, crock pot and bread machine. They make (cooking) life so much easier! Thanks so much for posting this, can’t wait to give it a try. I think my kids will love making it, I don’t know if they’ll eat it – but they’ll be all about making it!

I don’t own a crock pot either, so I guess it’s Fage for me! I give you credit for making your own twice this month, though! My most-used appliance is an iced tea maker I got years and years ago. It’s well worth the $3o someone spent on it.

I love these fact/fiction tidbits! I’m no fitness EXPERT but I think the thing about cardio/strength training has to do with the fact that you tend to keep burning more calories AFTER strength training since muscle burns more calories than fat and strength training builds muscle. That’s what I’ve always heard anyways.

I love this crockpot Greek yogurt recipe! I have shied away from making yogurt because of all the crazy equipment you need. But a crockpot is one thing that my kitchen is fully stocked with.

I usually mix half the milk powder with some of the water in my bread mixer with wire whisk attachment, pour into crockpot. Mix the other half with some of the water and add to crock pot. I usually “take its temperature” at this point. I hold back some of the water (when mixing with milk powder) so as to be able to adjust the temperature with it. I shoot for 118-120 degrees, adding the same straight hot out of the tap or a little cold mixed in if the milk is too hot. Then I add the yogurt into the crockpot and stir well. Put lid on.
Cover with a towel and turn the crockpot off. I will usually do this about 8 PM and when I get up in the morning it’s yogurt! If I mess up on the temperature and it’s a little cooler, I just leave the crockpot on a little, being sure to set the timer so I don’t forget. I have let it get up to about 135 degrees and it’s still turned into yogurt, although it was grainy textured. In the morning I put the yogurt in the refrigerator and by lunch it’s cold enough to eat.

I’ve never heard of making yogurt in a crock pot. I seem to be one of few who rarely uses a crock pot…Mine is actually stashed away in the basement and rarely gets to see the light of day. I’ve been wanting to make my own yogurt for awhile now tho!

I definitely want to try making yogurt in my crock pot. I’ve got a gourmet appliance that makes frozen yogurt and it is awesome. My most used small appliance would have to be my hand mixer because I always seem to be baking. 🙂

I think idea of calories burned in cardio vs. weight training is that when you weight train you build muscles which raises your BMR so that you burn more calories at rest. You really have to raise your heart rate to an aerobic level in order to burn a lot of calories DURING a workout though.

I had a lady that came in to see me with her mother (who was trying to lose weight). She was pretty rude and kept saying how lucky she was in an annoying “ohhh…. I’m just so thin and can eat whatever I want” kind of way (which made me feel bad for her mother, who was struggling with losing weight).
BUT here’s the kicker, I tested their body fat, and the “skinny” girl’s was higher!! HAHA.
Skinny does not always equal healthy.

Most used kitchen appliance? Right now that would be a tie between my food processor and my blender. Most of the time it would be my blender (almost daily smoothies) but right now I’m using my food processor constantly for banana soft serve, hummus, pesto, and other treats.

I LOVE my crock pot, but I haven’t used it since the weather got warm! My favorite way to use it is for soup or stew when it’s nice and chilly out. It has me so excited for fall just thinking about it. 🙂

Gosh, I never realized it was so easy to make greek yogurt in my crock pot! I’m definitely going to keep this in mind. Greek yogurt, I love you – but you are an expensive “habit”!

Hey girl…the cardio versus weight lifting and calories thing…if you do both exercises for an hour you will burn more calories in that one hour by doing cardio BUT lifting weights engages your muscles and metabolism and makes you sustain a higher caloric burn in the hours that follow the exercise. Does that make sense?

As you probably could have guessed, I use my food scale the most. It makes everything so easy, and while it only has one fuction I can use it for almost everything I make, and if I for some reason wanted to weigh something that wasn’t food I could do that too… 😉

It’s true, some of my “skinniest” friends are the least healthy!
I had no idea you could make yogurt in a crock pot! By the way, your counter tops are gorgeous 🙂
Most used kitchen appliance hmmm my toaster, lol!

I’m having a hard time believing the strength training vs. cardio one as well. The main thing I can think of is if they are including the post workout burn. Your body works harder after strength training to repair the muscles which will take energy (or calories) to do and we all know muscle burns more calories, but as for the workout itself – cardio certainly burns more. Who knows if that made any sense typed outside of my head. LOL

I can’t get over those seven fact/fictions you posted up front. I didn’t know exercise could reduce cellulite! I did know about marathons increase heart attack rate. You produce so many free radicals from all of that stress on the body. I believe it.

This is awesome what you did with the yogurt. Who needs to buy a yogurt maker?! hehe, me. No, I won it 🙂

I’m happy to see healthy fact & fiction lists! The information is really good. 🙂
You are so creative making yogurt in crockpot!
I really wanna try it.
I use food processer, rice cooker and ice-cream maker often 🙂

[…] for those adventures folks out there, you can successfully make Greek yogurt in a yogurt maker or a crock pot. I’ve tried both with great results! And there is a definite cost savings if you decide to […]

[…] for those adventures folks out there, you can successfully make Greek yogurt in a yogurt maker or a crock pot. I’ve tried both with great results! And there is a definite cost savings if you decide to […]